It sounds more and more like a blown BIOS.A previous owner might have wanted to remove the wifi-whitelist and failed...Assuming there's no password on the BIOS, replacing those chips is cheaper than a new mobo, but requires deft manipulations.Check with the seller first, or return it for a full refund.

I checked the BIOS flash chips and both seem to be intact. What would one do to test whether or not they're blown?

Surely, you could use the chip's manual, apply voltages, and measure outputs.

Edit: Did a bit of digging and found that RAM rank incompatibilities may exist. I've only been testing with rank 1 (1Rx8) RAM. Putting a broken rank 2 (2Rx8) module in got me 8 beeps. I'll be getting a package of 2Rx8 RAM tomorrow and will do tests.

]]>2018-05-24T11:18:46-05:002018-05-24T11:18:46-05:00https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=126254&p=818408#p818408A previous owner might have wanted to remove the wifi-whitelist and failed...Assuming there's no password on the BIOS, replacing those chips is cheaper than a new mobo, but requires deft manipulations.Check with the seller first, or return it for a full refund.

]]>2018-05-24T11:04:48-05:002018-05-24T11:04:48-05:00https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=126258&p=818407#p818407The facts are that Li-ion batteries degrade over time much less when they aren't stored at a full charge and are kept cool. Higher temperatures is more degrading than higher charge levels. There was a nice chart demonstrating this at one point on WIkipedia, but it was long removed for some reason. I saved the article for posterity:

Truthfully that is probably not as accurate with newer formulations in modern Li-ion batteries, but you understand the gist... high capacity is nowhere near as detrimental to long term capacity as high temps.

Back when I got my T61p (new) I set the battery charge thresholds to start charging under 40% and stop at 70%. If I anticipated needing more battery life, I'd just go into Power Manager and tell it to fully charge a day or few hours in advance, then set it back when I was done. Ten years later that original Sanyo battery still holds a couple hours of charge on that machine.

The newer versions of Power Manager will automatically change charge thresholds in the background as it learns your usage patterns. "Maximum runtime mode" will use 100% of the battery's available capacity, and "Maximum lifespan mode" will stop charging at 90% or so of the actual capacity, while showing at 100% charge.

On that topic, Sanyo vs. Sony vs. Panasonic is less relevant with the newer models since Sanyo bought Panasonic. They're all much pretty good at long-term longevity than they (Sanyo!) were (was) 10 years ago.

... got it to boot -- for a few seconds before it shutdown while I was changing the date in the BIOS.

Maybe CPU is overheating during those few seconds? I remember back from my days when I was using desktop PC that even slightest crumbs of anything (hair, etc.) between CPU pins and socket may cause overheating problems. I would try to remove CPU from motherboard, blow air over the CPU and socket to remove dust or anything and assemble it back. Just in case.

Checked again, the socket and pins are all good. The CPU is definitely the one it's supposed to be (judging by FRU) and in the right type of socket. I don't think it means anything, but the CPU has one less pin connection than the socket. The CPU is undamaged.

I checked the fan too, it's clean. In fact, the entire machine is basically pristine. I think I've done more damage abusing the screws and wires taking it apart so many times, than the amount it came with.

]]>2018-05-24T10:03:54-05:002018-05-24T10:03:54-05:00https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=126261&p=818404#p818404Now, the issue is that even with all the "pure" drivers from Lenovo on this machine, whenever I attempt to mute the microphone array that's built into the machine it never ever mutes even when the Control Panel applet says it's muted, nor the fact that the little orange LED on the F4 key shows it's lit and it still isn't muted.

That's not a good thing with me not being able to totally shut the mic up - I know I can disable the hardware (and yes that works) but that isn't a proper solution.

Anyone else ever have this situation? I've attempted:

- muting the mic manually in the Windows Recording mixer on the device itself, no effect- muted the specific device in the Control Panel applet aka Microphone (Realtek High Definition Audio)- making sure I have the latest drivers from Lenovo and deciding not to install anything else, not even those from Windows Update

Not sure what else to do. I did install Windows 10 on the laptop the other day for some experimentation (I can't stand the OS but I wanted to see how it ran on this laptop) and yes it was the April Creator's Update version 1803 and after getting that set up with the same method then installing Lenovo's ThinkVantage app for Windows 10 and everything else necessary, still the mic will not mute.

I'd hate to think it's a defect of some kind but maybe it is, I don't know, but I figured it couldn't hurt to toss the question out there and ask if anyone else has had such issues.

... got it to boot -- for a few seconds before it shutdown while I was changing the date in the BIOS.

Maybe CPU is overheating during those few seconds? I remember back from my days when I was using desktop PC that even slightest crumbs of anything (hair, etc.) between CPU pins and socket may cause overheating problems. I would try to remove CPU from motherboard, blow air over the CPU and socket to remove dust or anything and assemble it back. Just in case.

]]>2018-05-24T09:23:21-05:002018-05-24T09:23:21-05:00https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=126260&p=818402#p818402Any suggestions on replacement batteries. I am partial to Amazon Prime (because impatient), but if that's not the best avenue, I am open to other suggestions too.